(RNS) — When Yehiel Curry was first asked to become a pastor, his wife shared her thoughts: “I hope you told them no.”
In a story he has often recounted, Curry, a former schoolteacher, would eventually say yes, first becoming a lay minister and later, the ordained pastor of Shekinah Chapel Lutheran Church in Riverdale, Illinois. In that role, he helped the chapel move from a start-up congregation to a full-fledged member church of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
Curry, 53, would eventually become Lutheran bishop of his hometown of Chicago. Then, late last month, he was elected presiding bishop of the ELCA, one of the largest Protestant denominations in the country. He will formally be installed on Oct. 4, at Central Lutheran Church in Minneapolis.
In an interview this week, Curry said that as a young man, he spent years searching for his calling in life — working in sales, as a social worker and eventually as a seventh-grade public school teacher near the former Ida B. Wells Homes housing project on Chicago’s South Side. There, he heard about Camp SIMBA — short for “Safe in My Brothers’ Arms” — a mentoring program and camping ministry focused on helping Black teenagers grow into leaders.
As he got involved in the program — now known as “Rescue, Release and Restore” — Curry said he began to feel what became a calling to the ministr …